In spring 2026, Benjamin Victor’s Stands in the Wind will be installed at the Stuhr Museum in Grand Island, NE.  The life-size sculpture of a Pawnee mother and child will welcome thousands of visitors to the museum’s Pawnee Earth Lodge dedicated to the history of the people, pioneers and plains of the Cornhusker state.

“I sincerely enjoyed the process of working on this sculpture,” says Victor. “From the beginning, I immersed myself in research and spent time walking the land where the piece would ultimately stand, trying to understand the place, not just intellectually, but physically and spiritually.

One of the most meaningful aspects of the project was my time in Nebraska working on the clay on site at the Stuhr Museum during a short residency. Being able to sculpt there, in that context, mattered deeply. I worked from life with model Ana Eva Warne, while her mother, Maylynn Riding In, generously guided me through decisions regarding details, clothing, and accouterments.”

In the months working on the clay, Victor recalled one particular moment which really helped him find the spirit of the entire piece. “Maylynn shared a necklace that had been given to her father, Dr. James Riding In, by his mother before the Pawnee people were relocated from Nebraska to what is now Oklahoma in the 19th century. The necklace had not returned to Nebraska since that time. When it was placed on Ana’s young shoulders during the modeling session, there was a palpable sense of gravity in the room. It felt as though everything aligned in that moment. That gesture carried a quiet spiritual force, reinforcing everything the sculpture seeks to express.

In that moment, the message became unmistakably clear—the same message I heard repeatedly from Native friends and collaborators throughout this journey: we are still here. Enduring. Powerful. Unbroken.”